So, for all those interested, the 2012 Olympics are fully underway in the UK. Sports enthusiasts around the world are following their favorite disciplines and notching up the medals each athlete is winning. If the Beijing Olympics were called the first ‘Digital Olympics’, the 2012 are angling for the first ‘Social Olympics’ tag. And so far, it is winning.

As ever, this causes some issues though. Partly due to the increased social media use on mobile devices at events and from those commenting on the games via their devices, mobile data usage is said to double during the Olympics, leading to problems with bandwidth for broadcasters trying to share their recordings. Olympics officials have even been advising people to avoid using Twitter and mobile data to share updates as it affects the wireless networks. So it looks as though we can’t be social if we aren’t ready for mobile.

How could the UK have avoided this tussle with bandwidth? By using such a key sports event to drive technology upgrades – the UK is struggling with its current network capacity because LTE (or 4G as it is more widely known) has not yet been widely deployed.

This doesn’t just apply to the current Olympics. Mobile operators have to be ready to cope with additional pressures on bandwidth for other upcoming sporting extravaganzas. Whether the Brazilian World Cup in 2014 or Russia’s Winter Olympics in February 2014 in Sochi, both countries’ mobile operators are gearing up to equip the main sites with 4G in advance of the upcoming sporting events. While the key word is bandwidth, there are also potential additional revenues they could be making from an LTE network that works well.

With decent bandwidth you can surf the web at the same time as following sporting performances in real-time on mobile TV. While Olympics officials recommend that the UK public decrease their levels of mobile social media activity, now is a good time for the Brazilians and Russians to increase activity around the potentials of LTE – ensuring watchers can follow all goals and sporting achievements via mobile devices for online viewing, while looking for additional revenues operators can gain from it.If London had upgraded to 4G/LTE in time for the Olympics, better communications would be possible and everyone watching on their devices around the world wouldn’t have to suffer poor broadcast just because enthusiasts are taking to social media to share their experiences.

In the latest of our series of blog posts looking at the results of our recent CIO research, we take a look at the thorny subject of who is ultimately…

From Twitter

Loading...

More from Twitter

Subscribe to updates

Select a category of interest:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner. Submitting this form will open a popup window to the FeedBurner website.

Latest comments

21/02/18 @ 10:02MikeFingerprint on my mobil and hope to se Iris in the mobil soon. And hope to see fingerprint i paymentcards!

19/02/18 @ 16:02Tiffany ConwayHi David,
Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and interest in DDL! Unfortunately, at this time the pilot is still limited to a group of selected CO DMV participants, and enrollment at DMV locations is not yet being offered. We are working hard alongside our partners to ensure that DDL will be an option for any resident in the near future.
In the meantime, please do stay engaged in our pilot activity and news. And feel free to drop us a line at ddlpilot@gemalto.com – We would be happy to add your name to a wait-list of people who are interested in being part of a later phase of test participants.
Thanks again,
Tiffany

19/02/18 @ 16:02Tiffany ConwayHi Robert,
Yes, you hit the nail on the head! That is exactly the concept - a securely stored and locked application that houses an encrypted file which represents your driver's license or ID card in a digital format. This is very similar to mobile payment on your smart phone. The data that is presented is a digital representation of a physical credit card, but provides new benefits like greater convenience and higher security.
Thanks,
Tiffany